


Theme Park On The Final Frontier

by KeroZombie



Series: GWENI ZONE [2]
Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Couch Cuddles, Cuddling & Snuggling, Earth-14512, F/F, Ferris Wheels, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Guns, Humor, International Fanworks Day 2021, Kissing, Light Angst, Mars, Outer Space, Robots, Roller Coasters, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Western
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28998516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeroZombie/pseuds/KeroZombie
Summary: Peni takes Gwen on a tour of the red planet's famous... theme park? With more yeehaws than you can shake a stick at and a disturbing amount of jumbo-size cow statues, Gwen gets more than she bargained for as she experiences the best excitement 3145 AD has to offer!
Relationships: Peni Parker/Gwen Stacy
Series: GWENI ZONE [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2127342
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Theme Park On The Final Frontier

**Author's Note:**

> When I saw Ao3's International Fanworks Day challenge for this year I knew right away that I had to write some Gweni content. I sat down and thought hmm, what would be a good place to drop these two into? Then all at once this absolutely ridiculous idea rushed into my head. I had a LOT of fun writing it, and I hope some of that comes through for you guys too! I imagine Peni to be about 13 or so in this story, as Gwen is just north of 14 in the movie. I didn't specify last time but it vaguely comes up in the story so I figured I'd best clarify it here. 
> 
> Enjoy the full-throttle Mars experience ;)

Gwen squinted at the dull, grey glow of the midmorning sun.

"You know, when you said we were visiting Mars… I dunno, I guess I was expecting more…well…"

Peni rocked back and forth on a spring-mounted horse ride, "What? Dust storms? We still get those."

"No, it's not like that," she replied as she dumped her empty can of 'cowboy cola' into a plastic trash can shaped like a cactus, "I mean, it _is_ sorta that, but-"

Gwen watched as Peni hopped off the synthetic horse and crunched her way through the red sand towards her. This was, what, their second date? Ever? And Gwen still couldn't get over how _cute_ her new girlfriend was. She was like a human sugar hit.

' _My Tiny Girlfriend From The Future Can't Possibly Be This Cute!' Yeah, sounds like one of those pervy light novels…_

Now the human sugar hit was staring up at her, her sparkly eyes suddenly dim with sadness, "Are you not having fun?"

The look on her face made Gwen's heart ache.

"I'm having fun!" she blurted out, "I swear! It's… I just wasn't expecting a theme park, you know?"

Peni tilted her head to the side, "Really? Oh… yeah, I guess Mars isn't inhabited yet in your universe, huh."

"It's kinda empty. We still think we might find life on it."

Peni walked up to the corral fence and rested her small hands on its weather-worn wood, "In the core, right?"

"No, the ice caps."

Peni laughed, "Of course. I guess you _would_ think that."

A rollercoaster roared by overhead, the screams of its passengers fading into the wind as it zoomed away past synthetic mountaintops. Somewhere in the distance harmonica music played through tinny speakers, barely audible over the clamor of the crowds drifting along the park's main street. The only people in the little pen were Gwen and her egghead companion, who was now rummaging through her bag with a focused look on her face.

"What're you looking for, Peni?" Gwen asked.

"My wallet. I need more soda."

Her eyes lit up and she pulled her cyan wallet out of her bag with an 'aha' look on her face. Then she wandered over to the one, solitary vending machine in the corral. It sat by an old wooden wall, ostensibly the exterior of a huge barn but actually just a facade for the restroom building. Peni touched her wallet to a screen with a cow face on it and the machine loudly declared:

"Moo!"

Then two bottles of soda materialized in a clear compartment on the machine's right hand side. "Thank you," the machine said in a gravelly southern drawl.

"You're welcome," Peni replied.

Gwen was never gonna get over it. This was Mars. The mysterious red planet. Hope of the solar system. Secret home of ancient alien lifeforms.

Peni held a bottle of green soda out to Gwen. The bottle said 'Rootin Tootin Root Beer'.

She grinned, "It's super good, I promise!"

Gwen, immediately infected with Peni's endless enthusiasm, took the gift with a smile, "Thanks."

She downed a couple of mouthfuls of the alien soda. It _was_ good. Tasted nothing like the root beer _she_ knew, though.

"It's kinda sour," she said, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.

Peni, once again leaning on the pen's spindly fence, sipped at her own soda, "That's how you know it's root beer!"

Gwen stood beside her, "What rides do we have left, anyway?"

Peni looked up, "Lots. You haven't even _seen_ the Wagon Wheel yet. But… we can go somewhere else, if you want…"

Gwen ruffled her girlfriend's messy black hair, "And miss seeing you scream your lungs out? Fat chance."

"But you said-"

"Ignore what I said. I was just surprised. The future's crazy, you know?"

"I could say the same about the past."

"And you often do."

"Not _that_ often."

Gwen smirked, "Often enough. So," she downed some more 'root beer', "the rides. Got any recommendations?"

Turns out that was the magic phrase, cos as soon as those words left Gwen's lips Peni hopped into action, thwipping the electronic map out of her bag like a performer pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

"So the Wagon Wheel is in the Spaghetti West zone of the park," the hologram highlighted the ride as Peni pointed to it, "Right now we're in Wild Wyoming."

Gwen stifled laughter.

_Wyoming… on Mars…_

Peni ignored her, "You've also got Deadwood Dunes - that's where they do all the re-enactments, and then there's The Badlands."

"What's there?"

With a fiendish grin she replied, "The _really_ scary rollercoasters."

Gwen grinned back, "Now you're talking my language."

Turning her face up to the dustcloud sky Gwen drank the last few gulps of her unexpectedly bitter root beer. Then she tossed the empty bottle into the plastic cactus to join her cowboy cola.

"Alright then Peni, lead the way. Let's see what a Martian theme park can do."

* * *

Hand in hand they strolled down Texas Avenue. On the way they bought some Martian cowboy hats, candy hot dogs and took a ride on an 'old-fashioned' carousel from the year 2123. All the attractions at the park were self-operated, some were even self-aware, but the carousel was so old it still needed a human to stop and start it each cycle.

"My great, great, great, great, **great** , _great_ grandfather once rode on this carousel!" the bearded, sunburnt operator proudly declared, "It was just sittin' in my back yard till the colony bought it from me. All the parts are 22nd century originals. Still runs like a charm."

"So you're telling me this ride is literally over a thousand years old?" Gwen asked.

"You said it, young lady!"

This new information overjoyed Peni, "Isn't that great Gwen? An actual for-real 22nd century theme park attraction!"

"Yeah," Gwen replied, laughing nervously, "great…"

The two lovebirds decided to ride together on a two-seater horse, Gwen in front, Peni in the back. The ride trundled into action, the horse bobbing up and down as the carousel slowly started to spin.

"It's not often you get to ride a piece of history!" Peni said.

"If this thing is ancient history, then what am I? I haven't even _reached_ the year 2123 yet."

"You're not ancient, Gwen, you're _vintage_."

"If you ever wanna be kissed again, you'll take that back."

"It's a compliment!"

Despite her misgivings about the ride's safety (and 'ancient' age), Gwen got off the carousel with a smile. Anything that got Peni to glom onto her for an extended period of time was good in her books. With the map as their guide they continued on down Texas Avenue. Eventually the road branched off into several paths. One had an arrow sign painted with the words, 'THE ALAMOO'.

_The Ala **moo**?_

Peni strolled down the path, holding Gwen's hand, but Gwen was still fixated on the sign.

"Alamoo… are you serious right now?"

Her arm stretched out, went taut. Peni was dragged to a halt. The genius turned around, "Gwen?"

"Peni, that _does_ say Ala _moo_ , right? It's not a misspelling?"

Peni furrowed her brows in confusion, "Yes? _Alamoo_ is the name. That's the big set they have in The Badlands. You know, like how Disneyland has the giant Olaf statue in Magic Kingdom."

"Olaf… the snowman?"

"Who else! Come on, let's go!"

Gwen let herself get tugged along by her girlfriend, "Why not a Mickey statue?"

Peni continued staring at the map, "Mickey just doesn't have the same vibe after that incident with the animatronic uprising. And the drug scandal. And-"

"You know what, forget I asked."

After a few minutes of walking, the path opened up to a stone plaza. The plaza's perimeter was lined with human-sized cow people dressed in cowboy clothes. Some were riding horses.

_A cow… riding a horse…_

"There it is!" Peni gleefully announced.

The Alamoo. Made of weathered stone and time-worn wood. Battle-scarred, majestic, a historic monument… Gwen remembered it alright, and it looked _nothing_ like the tacky eyecatch in front of her.

"Wow," she said, "how did they even _find_ that much cowhide?"

"Oh it's all synthetic," Peni explained with a wave of her hand, "you don't get real cows anymore, not like the ones in your world."

"How the heck do they _clean_ it?"

"They don't."

"Uhhhh-"

"It's self-cleaning."

Gwen stared at the main entrance's glittering 'COME ON IN' sign through the wiggling butt of a dancing cowboy hologram, "What's in there?"

"Just a gift shop. The rides are all further down."

Sure enough, as Gwen brought her eyes to the grey skyline she saw them, high above the Alamoo's cowhide walls and back beyond the milieu of faux-western paraphernalia, like metal snakes on the horizon.

"The Badlands, huh?"

Peni smirked playfully, "Hope you're not a scaredy cat."

Gwen tutted, "If you think those scare me, you don't know me well enough."

* * *

The Badlands, much like its real life counterpart, was a rugged landscape, carved out in rocky hills and crevices. Rollercoasters dove in and out of mountain faces all around them, criss-crossing through the sky in a web-like mesh. The silence of the corral was gone, replaced by a constant rumble as coasters launched one after the other down the thick metal tracks above. In the middle of the chaos sat a series of carnival-style shooting ranges. One was adorned with a net full of plushy cacti.

"Oh my god Gwen!" Peni squealed, "Aren't they cute? Look at their little faces!"

She had to admit, they _were_ adorable. As was Peni.

"Yeah, they're pretty cute."

Peni dragged one of the fake guns up into her slender arms, "I gotta win me one of these."

The gun trembled as she leveled it at her target of choice. Then a robot wearing a white ten-gallon hat and a sheriff's badge rolled in front of Peni's barrel.

"That'll be one dollar, please," it droned.

Peni started rummaging in her bag. Gwen stepped in.

"Let me try."

"You sure?"

"How hard can it be?"

The answer: harder than she expected. The gun made sense enough, as did the target - a simple circle with a red bullseye. The bullshit came when she fired her shot.

_Here goes nothing._

The bullet blasted out in a puff of smoke. Flashed towards the target. Then, as if stopped by an invisible hand, fell to the floor with a tiny _clink_.

"Huh?"

Sad eyes scrolled across the robot's backlit face, "Better luck next time, partner!"

Peni sighed, "You were so close, too!"

"I didn't even miss."

_Carnival bullshit is the same whatever millennium you're in, I guess._

Gwen put the gun back in its slot, "No way I'm gonna be able to hit that. Sorry Peni."

But her girlfriend wasn't gonna give up that easily, "How about you hold the gun, and I shoot?"

"How will that make a difference?"

"SP//dr has an idea."

Her eight-legged companion darted about on her shoulder. Gwen didn't understand how their connection worked, but then again, she barely understood how her _own_ powers worked.

"Alright, if you think it'll help."

"It will. Just hold the gun like that. Yeah, that's it."

Gwen's fingers were on the barrel. Peni's on the trigger. The young genius's hair tickled Gwen's cheeks. It smelled sweet, like apricots.

_I swear to god this girl is literally made of sugar._

The gun fired, just like last time. A cloud of smoke. A speeding bullet. It neared the target.

_Come on!_

It hit the invisible wall. Gwen was about ready to give up. Then the bullet started sparking.

Peni tutted, "Just like I thought."

Still suspended in the air, the bullet struggled towards the target, lighting up like a firework as it strained against whatever invisible force was holding it back.

"Peni, what the hell is going on?"

"Psychic bullet. You gotta get it to the end telekinetically."

"You have _telekinesis_?"

"No. Can't explain. Concentrating."

Now people were coming over to watch. Families with matching cowboy hats on, young couples, old couples, anthropomorphic singles with fancy-looking streaming headsets. Some tall dude in a blue jacket and his buddy, who had what looked like a robotic arm, were so curious that they came and stood right next to us as the bullet fizzed and crackled on its journey to its final destination.

Then, finally, we broke through. The bullet screamed into the target, blasting a hole almost as big as the target itself as it demolished the bullseye. It kept going, out the back of the firing range, then-

BANG!

There was a huge flash of light. I recoiled instinctively. Peni dropped the gun to the floor. With all the urgency of an overfed sloth the robot rattled over to the scene of the crime. It bent forward, gyros whirring, and stared into the freshly scorched hole for an entire minute.

Then it said, "Congratulations! You won a prize!"

Peni leapt into the air in joy, "Yes!"

The robot fetched a plushy cactus from the cactus net and handed it out to the lucky genius.

"Here you go little lady!"

"I can't believe it worked!"

The tall man standing beside us picked up a gun. As Peni took my hand and explained the trick she'd just pulled, I heard the man say, "What do you think, Jet?"

His friend replied, "I think you're insane."

"I like my chances."

"And I like not being broke."

Then we were out of earshot.

"And that," Peni concluded, "is why two minds are better than one."

I nodded knowingly, even though I'd missed most of the explanation, "I see."

A rollercoaster zipped overhead, carrying screams from tunnel to tunnel. It was time.

* * *

The first thing you need to know about The Hangman's Knot is that its top speed was 170mph. 'OR YOUR MONEY BACK', the ride promised. The second thing you need to know is that each carriage was a fully sealed unit, airtight and reinforced to prevent dust from slicing through your face. The third thing, and this can't be stressed enough, is that it was absolutely fucking _terrifying_.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Peni laughed in Gwen's ear as they rolled into a sheer vertical drop, "This is AMAZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNGG!"

Loop de loop de loop they went, spending more time floating out of their seats than they did sitting _in_ them.

_This is_ _**nothing** _ _like web-slinging,_ _**why** _ _did I think it would be like web-slinging!?_

The coaster span, twirled, dipped up and down and around hill after hill, in and out of the red planet's red landscape. Gwen felt her stomach start to turn.

Then just as quickly as it started the rollercoaster stopped, gliding smoothly into its rickety wooden station. The harnesses over their shoulders hissed back up into their pre-locked positions, and joyous banjo music started to play. A metallic skeleton in an orange 'PARK STAFF' shirt gave us both a helping hand, one after the other, as we climbed out of the coaster carriage.

Peni was still on a high, "Now THAT'S the way you do it! They ain't got _nothing_ this good on Earth! …Gwen?"

From the tone of her voice Gwen could tell her girlfriend had noticed the sweat streaming down her face. The nausea was gone, but the shakes in her legs were gonna take a while.

_Thank god Peter B isn't here, or else he'd never let me live this down._

"That was even more intense than I thought it'd be," she said, trying to ignore the dizziness rolling round her head, "But… no regrets."

"Yeah? You sure?" Peni replied, collecting her belongings from one of the attraction lockers.

Gwen nodded, "Yeah… but maybe let's not do another coaster just yet."

Peni took her clammy hand, squeezing it tight, "I've already been on everything in The Badlands before anyway. How about we visit the Spaghetti West? It's a lot more chill."

"And walk all that way again?"

As they left the coaster's station they passed by the shooting range where they won the plushy cactus. Gwen thought she spotted the two men from before, but the crowd was so dense she couldn't be sure.

"Why would we need to walk?"

Gwen stared at Peni, "Because, that's… well we walked _here_ , didn't we?"

Peni had that mischievous look again, "Would you be angry if I told you I just wanted to hold your hand under all the giant cacti?"

Gwen pinched the bridge of her nose, a smile spreading across her tired, sweaty face, "Alright, you're forgiven. But I don't forgive you for making me witness the fucking Alamoo though."

"There's nothing wrong with the Alamoo!"

"Everything about that monstrosity is wrong."

"More interesting than _your_ Alamoo I bet."

"We don't _have_ an Alamoo, doofus. We have an Ala _mo_."

"See? It's even missing a letter."

"Peni, I swear to god."

They ended up getting a train. The name painted onto the side said 'Ole Reliable'.

"It circles the whole park," Peni explained.

The cab, engine and smoke box all looked like something out of a history book, but when you looked down at the tracks it was obvious that it was designed long after the Old West had become ancient history. For starters, the track it rode on _glowed_ like it was radioactive. Not that the train actually touched the track at all - the whole thing seemed to be suspended in midair via some magnetic force.

_At least I won't be getting a face full of steam._

Wrong. In the spirit of historical accuracy, the park designers had seen fit to have the train's chimney pump out a prodigious amount of jet black coal smoke. It mostly avoided the seating areas of the open-air carriages, but occasionally a gust would send a cloud of darkness right into the passengers' faces. The other park visitors, including Peni, all cheered and laughed when the coal fumes wafted into them, but Gwen just sat in silence, trying not to let her irritation show on her face.

A few minutes and couple dozen facefuls of smoke later they arrived at the Spaghetti West station terminal. It had been one hell of a day, emphasis on the hell, and though they'd only been at the park for a few hours, Gwen was more than ready to go home. Of course, she didn't say that to Peni.

_It's not her fault that Mars sucks._

"Wow… gets me every time," she heard her girlfriend say.

"Huh? What does?"

She pointed up at the sky, "That."

Gwen looked. When she saw it, her jaw dropped open. How she missed it before, she didn't know, but up close the sheer size of it was overwhelming.

" _That's_ the Wagon Wheel?"

"Biggest ferris wheel in the solar system."

And she could see why. It was as big as any skyscraper in New York, maybe even bigger than the biggest, and it dwarfed everything around it. As Gwen watched it in awe, she noticed that it never stopped moving. It kept on rotating even as people got on, slowly but surely, like some kind of enormous water mill.

"Wow…"

"The view from the top is _amazing_."

They joined the queue. It was long, but like the ride it ebbed forward at a steady pace. Holoscreens in clear glass walls explained the engineering behind the ride's construction, but they couldn't keep up with Peni, who took the time to explain in great detail (and at an almost breathless speed) exactly how every component of the attraction worked.

The ride had multiple observation pods attached to its bulky frame. Most were group pods, which could hold up to fifty people, but there were a handful of couple's cabins and mid-sized family pods as well. The holoscreens explained that if you wanted one of the special pods you had to book in advance.

They reached the front of the queue. It was gated off with bars of bright white energy. A robot, much like the one at the shooting range (though less obnoxious) greeted them.

"Next dome arriving in exactly eleven seconds."

Peni flashed a piece of paper at the robot. Its luminous eyes turned green, then with a bow it said, "Right this way, madam."

The gate powered down. Peni grabbed Gwen's hand and dragged her onto the ride's waiting platform.

"What's going on?"

Her question was answered by the arrival of a heart-shaped cabin. The pink door slid open and a polite robovoice softly commanded, "Get in!"

So they did. It had two wide, comfy seats set into opposing walls. The spacing was snug, but not cramped (you could say it was 'intimate'). All the walls were made of glass, so you had an uninterrupted view of everything around you. Uninterrupted, of course, but for the face of whoever you were sharing the cabin with.

"I know what you're thinking," Peni began.

"I'm not sure you do."

"I pre-booked it. I thought it might be, you know…" she looked off to the side, her hands nervously playing with her skirt, "romantic."

The nervous expression on Peni's face, one she always seemed to get whenever she tried to flirt, melted Gwen's heart.

"Are you this sweet with everyone," Gwen replied with a smirk as she relaxed in her cushioned chair, "or is it just me?"

Peni met her gaze with a smile of her own, "You get the special treatment."

"Nice."

Gwen glanced at the window behind Peni's head, but the only view was of the maze of metal bars and joints holding the Wagon Wheel together.

Peni's eyes became sad again, "Sorry it's been such a crappy day."

Gwen panicked.

"What? No, it's not been crappy."

"It's okay. I didn't realize, I didn't think-"

"You didn't-" Gwen's voice caught in her throat, "look…it was a good idea, Peni. It's not your fault that… you know…"

Peni stared down at her lap.

_Fuck. That wasn't the follow-up Gwen. That was_ _**not** _ _what you were supposed to say._

Gwen searched her mind for the right words.

"Hey," she said softly, hopping over so that she and her girlfriend were sitting side by side, "how many girls can say they went to Mars, huh? That's a pretty special date."

A choked laugh escaped Peni's lips, "That was my plan, but…"

"Well it worked, didn't it?"

The hint of a tear lurked in the corner of one of Peni's eyes, "Still…"

Gwen pulled Peni in close, squeezing her against her chest, "It's been…unforgettable, alright? I can say that with complete honesty."

Now her girlfriend let out a genuine giggle, muffled against Gwen's clothes, "I bet."

"I'm gonna need therapy to un-see the Alamoo."

"It's not that bad."

"Peni, it is. It _is_ that bad."

"I'm gonna tell the cows you said that."

"Then it's on your head if I have to beat them up."

The cabin rocked gently as the wheel took them ever higher. They continued to cuddle in silence, Peni stroking Gwen's arm, Gwen stroking Peni's hair, as the many Western-themed buildings and rides shrank and fell away below them.

"You know," Gwen said after a while, "I'm starting to think I'm just not a theme park person."

"Yeah?"

"I was the only kid at Disney who didn't like Mickey Mouse."

"No one likes Mickey Mouse."

"No, in my universe people _do_ like Mickey Mouse."

Peni lifted her head, "Despite all the assault convictions?"

Gwen chuckled, "Peni, he hasn't _got_ assault convictions in my universe, remember?"

"I just can't imagine it."

"Well you'll have to. Cos everyone in my universe loves the guy. But I didn't. Not as a kid."

"So you… avoided him?"

"I kicked him in the nuts."

Peni burst into laughter, "Of course you did."

"He gave me the creeps!"

"Well he's creepy!"

"No, he's not! That's what I'm trying to tell you!"

They were high up now. High enough that the people in the park were nothing more than little specks in the dirt.

Suddenly Peni leaned forward in the chair, "Gwen…"

Gwen watched her girlfriend's face go slack, "Peni?"

"Look out the window…" her eyes widened, "actually-"

Peni hopped off the seat and climbed onto the one on the opposite side of the cabin, resting her knees on the padding as she stared at the Martian landscape. Gwen got up and joined her.

"What is it? See a cool spaceship or something?"

She turned her eyes to the orange wilderness beyond their little love pod and all at once her breath was taken away. Eating up the horizon was Mars's largest mountain: Olympus Mons. The behemoth structure, an ancient volcano, stood like a brown wall in front of the sky. Gwen had only ever seen it on the internet, in aerial photographs and computer generated models. On a screen, from above, it just looked like a big verruca. The fact that it would swallow most of France if placed on planet Earth didn't really sink in before. But now, seeing it from the side, seeing just how tall it stood, how _wide_ it was…

Peni leaned closer to the glass, "Did you know it's as big as two Mount Everests?"

Gwen just stared, dumbstruck at the sheer magnitude of it.

"Damn…"

She couldn't tear her eyes away.

Peni continued, "What you're seeing there isn't even its peak. The peak is probably waaay beyond the horizon, cos it's so big. It's literally impossible to see all of it at once."

"Has anyone ever climbed it?"

"Yup! They do expeditions every month! You can't just walk it though. You need a power suit, or a mech. It gets super cold out in the open, even during the day."

"A mech, huh…"

Peni's arm wormed its way round her neck, "I could take you if you want~"

Gwen was almost cheek-to-cheek with her girlfriend now, "I dunno, it might end up like that time we tried to go to the arcade."

"And whose fault was that?"

"Yours."

"Hey! You kissed _me_ first!"

Gwen pecked her on the cheek, "I can't help it. You've got me addicted."

Peni smirked, "To what? Making out in weird places?"

"To making out with weird _people_."

"You're lucky I consider that a compliment."

"It _is_ a compliment," Gwen replied. "Now…"

She nudged Peni away so that her butt fell flat on the seat. Then Gwen climbed on top of her and, cupping her cheeks in both hands, said, "You get a great view from up here."

Peni caressed one of Gwen's hands with her fingertips, "Looks even better up close."

Gwen leaned in and planted a single, gentle kiss on Peni's lips.

"Mmm," she hummed, "you're right. Much better up close."

Peni struck back with a kiss of her own, wrapping her arms around Gwen and holding her tight as they slumped down on the chair together in a mess of arms and legs.

"Is this gonna happen every time?" Peni asked.

Gwen grinned, "I hope so."

By the time the ferris wheel had finished its cycle they were on the floor.

"Thank you for riding!" a mechanical voice chimed as the door automatically hissed open.

Gwen looked up and saw a sea of faces. All eyes were on her and her thoroughly disheveled girlfriend. She brushed her tousled bangs aside and jumped to her feet. Peni quickly followed.

"Thank you!" the younger spider said as they raced down the platform and out of the ride.

* * *

In a food court housed beneath a mammoth sombrero Gwen downed another bottle of cool, refreshing, and strangely bitter root beer.

Peni cracked open a bottle of orange soda, "Glad I booked that ticket."

"I bet you are."

" _Someone_ has to plan around your propensity for reckless kissing."

"What good is all that genius if you don't use it for kiss-planning? If anything I'm doing you a favor."

There was a pause. Then Peni looked across at her, "Let me know when you wanna go back."

Gwen frowned, "Home?"

"Yeah. You haven't gotta force yourself to stay if you're not having fun."

Gwen pondered for a moment, "I enjoyed the Wagon Wheel."

Peni laughed, "That's different."

"They got any ghost trains here?"

"Hm?"

"Ghost trains," Gwen took a swig of her drink, "You know. Dark tunnels. Spooky monsters."

"Prospector's Peril is a bit like that."

Gwen watched as Peni pored over the map, "Is it dark?"

"Super dark," she replied absentmindedly.

"How many people per car?"

"What?"

Gwen repeated her question, "How many people per car? Two, three?"

"Two, but-"

"Where is it?"

Peni paused. Gwen could see the cogs turning in her girlfriend's head, "Well the map says it's here in the Spaghetti West. So…you wanna ride it?"

Gwen shrugged her shoulders casually, "Just an idea."

"Just an idea, huh?"

"Just throwing it out there."

"I'm not sure I understand."

Gwen threw her now-empty bottle into a plastic trash cow, "You can never have too much of a good thing."

Peni raised a finger in objection, "That's not true. Also, that doesn't make anything clearer."

"I'm saying I enjoyed the Wagon Wheel."

"Yeah, I heard that, but-…oh," her eyes widened as the penny finally dropped, "…OHHHHH!"

Gwen nodded sagely, trying her best not to laugh, "You got there in the end."

Peni hurriedly stuffed the map in her backpack and grabbed Gwen's hand, "Let's not waste any time then!"

"Whoa, hold on there partner!"

But it was no use. Before Gwen could so much as say 'yeehaw' she was being dragged through the crowds towards the ghost train and the promise of more kisses. Not that she minded.

_Maybe Mars isn't so bad after all._


End file.
